Panic returned in full force. People screamed. Cried. Some locked themselves in rooms. Others looked to Monaki for answers but he had none.
Even he was beginning to feel it.
His fingers were stiffer. His joints ached. His vision blurred in strange ways.
MONAKI (to himself)
"I have to fix this. Fast."
Monaki sat alone, staring into the endless white horizon. Snowflakes drifted down lazily. His mind, however, was racing.
Suddenly, his eyes caught something—a rubber vacuum bot, half-buried in snow near the storage shed.
MONAKI (V.O.)
"What if we could rebuild it… turn it into a scout drone?"
---
Monaki and the science crew rigged the vacuum with salvaged parts: propellers, a phone camera, and stabilizers. Everyone watched as the makeshift drone took off into the icy sky.
It flew for miles 2,000 miles before the battery began to die. When they retrieved it and checked the footage, it was nothing but ice and snow. For miles.
But then… a glimpse.
Some structures, broken but human-like. A possible settlement.
Gasps filled the room. Hope flickered.
---
An old manual truck, used once to haul school food, had made it through the teleportation. They checked it had just about a gallon of fuel.
PRINCIPAL (sternly):
"You'll take 20 liters. No more. We have to keep some for backup power."
Monaki nodded with discontent but he said nothing.
He was going.
Then
TARO (weakly, sick but defiant):
"I'm coming with you."
MONAKI:
"No, you're not well"
TARO:
"I'm not letting you go alone."
YUKA: "I'll go." [another female student held her by her hand and whispered you don't have to, you shouldn't go. But she bluntly said I'll go it's my choice]
Three of them. A team.
[IN. PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE – JUST BEFORE DEPARTURE]
The principal opened a locked cabinet.
Inside: a few old shotguns and pistols.
PRINCIPAL:
"I hoped we'd never need these… but take them. Just in case." And he ordered one of the teachers to drive the truck.
The weight of what they were about to face hung heavy in the air.
[ ICY ROAD – MOMENTS LATER]
The truck's engine rumbled to life. Monaki, Taro, the student, Jumped in ,The gates opened.
EXT. FROZEN WASTELAND – DAY
The truck rolled slowly through the thick snow, barely following the path the drone had mapped. Inside, MONAKI sat beside the DRIVER — one of the teachers in the school. TARU, pale and coughing, sat with YUKA (The student who had volunteered to join them), bundled in layers, shivering.
[there had been driving for a while]
MONAKI (telling the driver to take a different path):
This is where the drone last recorded I think. Just keep moving...
Suddenly, a deafening BLIZZARD kicks up. The wind howls, snow covers everything — they can't see beyond the windshield.
TARU:
I can't see anything!
The truck's lights flicker, then go off. The vehicle shudders, then stops.
Silence.
Then... a deep, inhuman roar echoes through the snowstorm.
YUKA (trembling obviously regretting her decision to come along):
Did you hear that?
TARU wipes the fogged window with her hand and two glowing eyes stare back at her from the whiteout.
TARU (screams):
Something's out there!
A hulking 13-foot-tall beast, frost-covered and monstrous emerges. Its massive claw scrapes the side of the truck, shrieking across the metal.
The DRIVER grabs the shotgun that was given to them by the principal, fumbling with bullets. He loads and fires BANG! hits the creature's leg. It roars.
MONAKI suddenly clutches his left hand, which was already mutating into a rotten scale like arm
The Monster slams the truck, throwing them around inside. The DRIVER fires again Misses. Only one bullet left.
YUKA and TARU escape the truck, hiding behind it. The Monster strikes again breaking YUKA's arm and leg with a swipe. She screams and falls.
The DRIVER tries to run but the Monster claws his head clean off. Blood splatters the snow.
Monaki sprints through the thick snow, to go meet YUKA who lied motionless. until a growling roar stops him dead in his tracks.
The Monster lunges from the side, snow blasting around it. Its massive claws slash forward.
MONAKI (V.O.)
Is this it. Is this how I die… I should've listened to you mom, and schooled home.
He braces for impact—
But the Yeti suddenly jerks back, snarling and wimping. It's being dragged by something, someone.
MONAKI
(whispers)
What the hell?
TARU, pale but burning with an unexplainable rage, has gripped the creature by its tail.
With unnatural strength, she slams the Monster to the ground. Once. Twice. Bones crack.
Then she leaps and lands on its chest, and rains down a flurry of punches each one brutal, savage.
Blood splatters. The creature's skull splits open. Snow turns red.
Monaki stands frozen. Shocked. Speechless.
Taru rises slowly, her breath visible in the air—fists clenched, trembling, soaked in blood.
Then she turns smiling with tears in her eyes and says to MONAKI
"Told you I'll protect you didn't I"